Back in November one morning I was sitting out on my patio drinking a tea and talking to my mom. I was updating her on topics we usually discuss in the morning. One of my primary topics was the news that Ellen Mclain, the voice actress of GLaDOS from Portal, was nominated for anaward at the 2011 VGA’s! Me being such a huge Portalfan, my mom is always well informed on these types of things. We were both really excited for Ellen. She was nominated for best performance by a human female.”
First I want to give a quick shout out to Chris Hardwick and his assistant Monica for their quick responses in making this happen quickly and efficently! We had contact with Chris on Thursday afternoon and had all arrangements taken care of for the live show on Friday, nice work!
To put it plainly, The Nerdist podcast is one of the top podcasts in iTunes with a listener base of around 200,000 people. Needless to say, Chris Hardwick knows how to draw a crowd, both online, and in the real world. The show is usually weekly and revolves around the idea of what it really means to be a nerd. Along with Chris as the lead host, the show is usually co-hosted with Jonah Ray and Matt Mira.
Myself, I have co-hosted hundreds of hours of interviewsand shows on my own podcast network, so I feel I can, with a little authority say, The Nerdist is definetely one of the best podcasts out there and deserves it’s spot in the number one rankings!
The Nerdist podcast is actually part of the Nerdist Network which was also formed by Hardwick. At the site, you’ll find a massive amount of stuff that’s bound to cause geeks and nerds alike to nerdgasm on themselves.. whatever that means.
ELLEN AND JOHN SING FOR A LIVE SOLD OUT CROWD
Ellen and her husband(author, actor, and musician) John Patrick Lowrie had a complete blast hanging out at the 9:30 club in Washington DC. They played/sang on stage for a live sold out audience of around 700+ people, Ellen singing lead and John(with banjo in hand) as backup.
Whats more, this wasn’t just your average group of people, these were our people! Nerds, Geeks, whatever you classify yourself as these days, there didn’t seem to be any complaints about the amazing show that was put on Friday night.
As seen in the above video, Ellen sang both “Want You Gone” from Portal 2 and “Still Allive” from Portal 1. The crowd seemed to have loved every minute of it and even joined in on the lyrics for certain parts. Both songs ended with thunderous applauds from all over the club.
THE NERDIST WAY
On top of being an amazing entertainer, Chris has also written a book called “The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life). I have actually picked up a copy myself and I have to say, Chris has a blunt comedic way of explaining the minds of all of us nerds/geeks out there that is almost freaky in the aspect of how close to the mark he understands the thought processes of what makes us lovers of all things geek, tick! I highly recommend it based on what I’ve read so far.
MAGFest is a music and video gaming festival run by fans, for fans. In more verbose terms, it’s an annual event dedicated to the celebration of video games and video game music. Every year offers 24-hour console, arcade, and PC game rooms, live video game cover bands, a vendors area, and guest speakers from the video game industry and fan scene. It also features a “JamSpace” available to all attendees for impromptu music performances. Numerous other events are scheduled each day.
What makes MAGFest unique is that it’s an event run by fans for fans. There are no corporate sponsors, no over-crowded showfloors, and no top-secret-behind-closed-doors showings. MAGFest is built from the ground up to be a party-like atmosphere with focus on community and fan creations, which creates an environment that no other expo or convention can ever recreate.
The Voxy Ladies wrote a nice little post about Ellen’s 2011 VGA win over at VoxyLadies.com. It’s always great to be recognized by fellow voice actors, especially the Voxy ones. Take a moment and have a look around and learn about the Voxy Ladies and all their “exploits?”, if that’s the right word for it.
Short sweet and to the point, the VGA pre-show really funneled the talent through fast. Say what you will, but to have so many guests and so much going on, I’m very happy with the respect they showed everyone, especially Ellen McLain. As always Ellen carried herself with the utmost amount of grace and modesty as she was interviewed.
Photo: Ellen McLain and Mark Hamill
KEEPING IT COOL DURING THE INTERVIEW
Ellen’s husbandJohn Patrick Lowrie(A star in his own right) stood to the side as he watched his wife receive the award. Both Ellen and John kept complete composure during the whole process. It is most likely a good thing I wasn’t with them, the publicist part of me would have wanted to stand in the back ground in full view of the camera with a “Dancing with Eternity” banner, while also trying to get a picture with Mark Hamill as well as twittering and facebooking to keep the social media family updated.
Spike’s interview allows everyone to see something that I think really makes the both of them shine, their love for one another. I have spent a good deal of time with the two of them, and little short spurts of time with them separately. When with one of them separately I have noticed that I can’t go more than a few minutes without the one I’m with bringing up something that involves the other one.
Even though it was Ellen that won the award, she’ll be the first to tell you that John is the one that really pushed and guided her into voice acting to begin with and without him she would have never landed the role of GLaDOS. Ellen makes it a point to mention John a couple of times during the interview and I dare say that if the interview would have had about another 30 seconds, she would have most likely started talking about how viewers could order John’s book. She’s proud of him and how well his book as done. Incredible husband, incredible entertainer/actor, and incredible author, what’s not to love. You know how the saying goes, we’ve heard it all our lives.. “Behind every psychopathic GLaDOS stands an even more psychopathic Sniper“, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
ALL JOKING ASIDE
One thing is for certain, if I have not said it enough already, the fans have made this all possible. Valve is awesome, Portal 1 & 2 are two of the most legendary games I have ever played, Ellen truly is as talented, wonderful and incredibly sweet as she appears in the above video, but you fans out there that we were able to reach through sites like Twitter and Facebook really caused the votes to come in to make this all possible.
I would like to personally invite everyone to listen to this talk I’m having with Samantha. We all know what it is like to be a fan of someone or something we love or admire, yet not everyone has the guts to do what this amazing girl has done, such as really put ourselves out there for the world to see.
I get insane amounts of fan mail to go through all week long for Ellen, as you can imagine it can get tedious at times. Part of what I do for my clients like Ellen is sort through mail involving fans, trolls, and spam. Ellen gets very little troll mail, but tons of spam and tons of fan mail. Lots of fan made videos, lots of fan made audio, pictures, you name it, I’ve probably seen it/heard it, but Samantha put together a video in which she opens up her heart and really speaks to not just Ellen, but all of the fans out there. I know for me personally, it reminded me what it is like to be a fan of someone/something.
When is the last time you opened yourself up and exposed yourself to something you loved or admired? I think we can all learn something from this young beautiful canadian fan girl, don’t you?
This is an absolutely amazing 
Spike’s interview allows everyone to see something that I think really makes the both of them shine, their love for one another. I have spent a good deal of time with the two of them, and little short spurts of time with them separately. When with one of them separately I have noticed that I can’t go more than a few minutes without the one I’m with bringing up something that involves the other one.
